This blog contains a series of movie segments to be used to brainstorm, warm up, follow up, and activate schemata, preparing the students for the topic that will be discussed in class. Here you will find the segments, the lesson plans, and varied topics to foster conversation. You may use the activities for a full two-hour class or they can be used separately to brainstorm or wrap up the topic, focusing on conversation, vocabulary and listening comprehension.

Mars has
water, frozen underground and at the polar caps. There is evidence that this
water has, in the past and present, flooded the surface in liquid form. Signs
of erosion can be found on the slopes of craters and volcanoes. Geological
features resembling those on Earth suggest that Mars was once a wet and
hospitable planet. A day on
Mars is 24.5 hours long. Mars is a third the size of Earth, but it has as
much land area as the seven continents combined. Its gravity is 2.7 times
less than that of Earth: enough to remain flat-footed on the surface, but a
low enough escape velocity to make launching from Mars relatively
simple.

With its similarity to Earth, there is a
strong possibility that bacterial life (or something more?) exists on the
planet.

Mars is exciting because it offers
scientists a view of how planets develop. Mars is billions of years older
than the Earth, and its features are much more exaggerated. The largest
canyons, volcanoes, and craters in the solar system are available for our
study.

3. Its Economic Value

Mars is worth a lot of money. There are
144 trillion square meters of surface area, roughly the land area of
the Earth, available for development.

There is an abundance of rare metals
on Mars such as platinum, gold, silver, and others. Shipping from Mars
to Earth, as mentioned above, is much easier than the other way
around.

4. Its Home for
Mankind

It offers a backup plan for humanity.

A
colony on Mars is not far off. The time will come when Mars will
not need Earth to sustain it. We may be able to grow our own
food on the planet in greenhouses, but what about wild animals, and
birds, and fish, and rivers, and oceans?

Cons:

Adapted from this informative site. It is worth visiting. I learned a lot there.

You would
agree that the center of Antarctica in winter is cold, not the best of places
to set up home? Well Mars is far colder. At the Curiosity site, which is close
to the equator, typical night time temperatures are -70 °C. Occasionally it
drops to below -100 °C. It is often cold enough for the CO2 in the
atmosphere to freeze out as dry ice. A human couldn't survive those
temperatures without technology.

2. Vacuum

Mars
does have an atmosphere, but it is so thin it would count as a
laboratory vacuum on Earth.

A human
would need to put on a spacesuit to survive the low pressure, never mind the
lack of oxygen. The pressure is so low, your saliva and the moisture coating
the interior of your lungs would boil.

3. Dust and
Dust storms

Every
Martian summer, roughly every two Earth years, you get a higher chance of
global dust storms. These can last for weeks, and the light from the sun drops
by over 99%. During the
dust storms, then artificial light is needed in middle of the day to grow
crops, and you won't be able to see anything. Solar power won't work.

4. Hard to
make self sufficient - need for parts and supplies from Earth

There
are lots of resources available on Mars. Mining on Mars will be hard to do, as hard as in space. You
still need to use space suits because of the vacuum conditions. And however
much you can make from native Mars materials, at least at present levels of
technology, then many components and replacement parts will have to come from
Earth.

1. What do you know about Stephen Hawking? What's your opinion about him?

2. What do you know about his health conditions? Does it make his discoveries less or more impressive? Or it just does not matter?

Read about his disease: Stephen was diagnosed with ALS, a form of Motor Neurone
Disease, shortly after his 21st birthday. In spite of being wheelchair
bound and dependent on a computerised voice system for communication Stephen
Hawking continues to combine family life (he has three children and three
grandchildren), and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive
programme of travel and public lectures. He still hopes to make it into
space one day.

3. Read about Hawking most important contributions and opinions about the world. Tell each other what his beliefs are and how you think his contributions might help the world.

Stephen Hawking's main contributions to the field of physics
and cosmology lie in the studies of:
The origins of the universe and Time.

The Big Bang theory. The big Bang theory says that the
universe of matter and energy began at a single point, which reached a critical
mass, then exploded outward. The universe continues to expand.

The universe began with a gravitational singularity, which
are more common in the universe than we think.

Stephen Hawking postulated the existence of radiation,
emitting through the black hole and coming out the other side. This
is now accepted science.

The universe has no space/time boundaries.

There is no god. he doesn't believe that there was a God who
created the universe. He doesn't believe in any sort of afterlife; he doesn't
believe in heaven or hell. He does, however, believe in a grand celestial order to
things, could we but understand it. He believes that there is a grand design to
all the systems of the universe, and to life itself.

Stephen Hawking is
dearly beloved in the common world by sci-fi fans and outer space enthusiasts,
because he is a strong proponent of the likelihood of extraterrestrial life. He postulates that the earth has already been visited
by extraterrestrial life in the form of viruses. We have a failure of
imagination when it comes to extraterrestial life in fiction and in movies. We
just can't imagine intelligent life that isn't humanoid, it seems. Stephen
Hawking thinks that should we be visited by intelligent alien life, it might be
the worse for us. "Like Columbus discovering America," he says.
"That didn't turn out so well for the native Americans."

4. Watch the movie segment and prepare a speech that reflects your opinions about Hawking, and the pros and cons of his ideas. Have a reporter present the most important points of your discussion.

MY OTHER BLOG

Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals

About Me

I'm a teacher at Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasilia, Brazil. I'm a Branch Coordinator and Teacher Trainer as well. I really like movies and seeing them with "different" eyes, trying to see how I can use them in my classroom. Recently, I have dedicated my ideas to grammar activities with movie segments because, apparently, teachers use movies for many purposes, but grammar. Working with movie segments fosters students' production and interest. I truly believe that grammar exercises should be attractive. I have just developed a new blog for movie segments to enhance topic based classes, focusing on conversation, listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. If you have suggestions for the blogs and the activities, just say it!

Casa Thomas Jefferson

O Inglês Como Deve Ser

Welcome

The main purpose of this blog is to share activities to enhance the teacher's lesson plan. They will not replace the course book, but they will make the lessons more attractive and richer. Share your warm-up activity with movie segments too. You may email it to me at claudioazevedo@thomas.org.br and the activity will be credited to you with a link to your own site if it's the case. Give me suggestions for topics and segments too, please. Isn't sharing just fantastic?